The invention herein is directed to over-the-road vehicles that are utilized for various functional purposes, such as mobile cranes, backhoes, bulldozers, and other similar functional vehicles, particularly vehicles that are primarily self-propelled land vehicles which can alternately be moved over railroads tracks as needed, as well as the ground or roadways. Usually, but not always, such vehicles are generally designed and structured for a particular work function that can be completed while being positioned or moved along railroad tracks, as well as on the ground. Moreover, such vehicles can usually be moved or transported from place to place in order to perform such work function either on the rails or on the ground. Thus, each such vehicle is constructed so that it can be moved to its particular work location and for this purpose, is generally, but not always, powered by a self-contained engine.
In the railroad context, such mobile work vehicles are often required to perform construction repair or even inspection functions on or near a railroad bed. For example, cranes, backhoes, and similar such vehicles are used in such activities as rail laying, rail bed maintenance, railroad tie removal and installation, and other similar railroad construction activities. Other such vehicles may be used only for inspection or transportation over the rails in addition to having over-the-ground capabilities. Such vehicles, as can be surmised, must be equipped with both rail wheels and over-the-ground wheels that must be road use to rail use and reciprocally back to road use as needed.
In present railroad technologies, these land-based vehicles have the capacity to ride over land as well as on railroad tracks. They are generally equipped with auxiliary rail wheels in addition to ground wheels that can be lowered or somehow placed in position so that the rail wheels engage the rail wheels engage the rails and permit the vehicle to be transported over the railroad tracks. In this latter deployment, the land-based wheels are frequently positioned and used to engage on their peripheral, circumferential surface the upper rail surface, while the juxtaposed rail wheels engage the rail in the usual flanged engagement in order to keep the vehicle on the railroad tracks. In this latter relationship when the rail wheels are deployed downwardly in engagement with the rails, the ground wheels frictionally engage the upper rail surfaces to propel the vehicle over the railroad tracks.
There are significant problems encountered with the deployment and structuring of rail wheels on such vehicles. One of the problems seen in this structuring and deployment is that the retractable rail wheels are generally affixed to the frame of the vehicle in a manner that does not permit efficient retraction or lowering of the wheels, as necessary. Part of the reason for the latter aspect is that rail beds are usually laid and constructed through areas where there is no road access over which such landdriven, rubber-wheel based vehicles can be driven and thence moved off the rails in such remote areas. Accordingly, a need exists for some structural assembly to make it easier to move the work vehicle on and off the tracks in a given work location, with accompanying features that provide an efficient mechanism for quickly and effectively lowering the rail wheels in place, and lowering the outrigger styled ground support members through a single unit. In such situations where the work vehicle is employed in certain, specific work function, it is necessary to have rail clampling means as an additional feature. In such circumstances wherein a singular unit can be structured on a work vehicle, include the rail wheels, rail lowering means, auxiliary ground support means, and rail clamping means a more efficient work operation can evolve with this resultant work efficiency.
Yet another problem with existing mechanisms that raise and lower vehicles is that most are not sufficiently stable or constructed for maximum strength and stability for the holding of such rail wheels in both the lowered and raised positions. The subject invention is conceived to overcome these problems and provide a land-based vehicle for railroad work which has a simplistic auxiliary rail support apparatus to raise and lower the rail wheels with means to bias the rail wheels in place, and the following objects of the subject invention are addressed accordingly.